Mahk Jchi  - Pura Fé

Mahk Jchi... I wrote for Ulali to sing for Robbie Robertson's Red Road Ensemble album in 1995. The word Mahk Jchi means Our Hearts in the Tutelo/Occaneechi/Saponi dialect of eastern NC/VA states. The words translated by Lawrence Dunmore say...

Our Hearts are full, our minds are good, our Ancestors come and give us strength. They say never forget who you are or where you come from. 

But this version of Mahk Jchi I connect with a song I wrote when I was 16 years old called "Roots". These two songs are similar in melody and fit together. I wrote Roots after learning about the devastation that the Uranium strip mining in Navajo Dene land four corners... Canyons area has done. In these transitional times and great violence on people and earth...we pray that humanity can sway the Authorities that be to move to a better, more sustainable way of life...